Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 2, No 1&2 Mar/Jun 2019 Dialectical Discourse on Absurdism and Existentialism in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party Modupe Elizabeth Olaniyan Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti Abstract Absurdism, one of the most exciting and creative movements in modern drama, is a name applied to a particular type of realistic drama that has absorbed theatre audience and critics for the past decades. One specific area, appropriately labeled ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ by the American Critic, Martin Esslin in the 1960s, offers its audience an existentialist point of view of the universe and forces them to consider the meaning of their existence in a world where there appears to be no true order or meaning. Including ever closer to a realistic representation of life, the evolution of absurd drama from Beckett to Stoppard brings a new focus to absurdism and expands the role of philosophy and metaphor in theatrical drama. Until the rise of this theatre of the absurd, drama had certain definite standards by which it was judged. The standards include characterization, engaging dialogue, clearly defined beginnings, middles and endings and definite setting. However, the drama of the absurd breaks all these conventions. Thus, this work focuses on the characteristics of absurdism and existentialism in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. The method employed is that of textual analysis through a philosophical concept called existentialism which serves as a guiding principle to the absurdist playwright and the P. 149 www.jecaoauife.com Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 2, No 1&2 Mar/Jun 2019 instrument used is drawn from the play of Harold Pinter; The Birthday Party (1958). A critical analysis of the text reveals the absurdist messages that reflect the condition of all existential beings as they confront life’s crisis and meaninglessness of life at one time or the other. Key words: Absurdism, Existentialism, Nothinglessness, Meaninglessness, Disillusionment. Introduction The Theatre of the absurd is a movement made up of many diverse plays, most of which were written between 1950s and 1960s. When first performed, these plays, such as Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1952) and Harold Printer’s The Birthday Party (1958), shocked their audiences as they were different from anything that had been previously staged. Martin Esslin coined the term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ in his 1961 book of the same title. He defined it as such, because all the plays emphasized the absurdity of the human condition. He says in the book (1961, p. 5), Absurdism is that which is devoid of purpose, cut off from religious, metaphysical and transcended roots. Man is lost, all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless. Each play of the absurdist mode renders man’s existence as illogical and meaningless. The idea of absurdism was a reaction of the collapse of moral, religious, political and social structures, following the two world wars which took place in 1914-1918 and 1939- 1945 respectively. These wars made man to overlook God as the ultimate solution to human problems. Also democracy gave the spirit of man a new lease, so the P. 150 www.jecaoauife.com Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 2, No 1&2 Mar/Jun 2019 divine right of kings and monarchs were seen as illusion of reality. There was a radical move towards liberty of the conscience and action, that justice be brought to light. During these wars, some promises were made by the government, which were never fulfilled. People were left with disappointment and disillusionment. The existing religious faith in the spirit of nationalism, various totalitarian fallacies and commitment in ensuring implicit order in the universe, were all dead. The most obvious message of the absurd writers is that they reveal through a careful use of satire the absurdity of life lived without an awareness of the basic existential reality of life. The view that man is lost in the universe where he lives and all his actions have become senseless and useless had earlier been dramatized in Albert Camus’ book, The Myth of Sisyphus. Although, the notion of the absurd is pervasive in all the literature of Albert Camus, The Myth of the Sisyphus, is his chief work on the subject. In it, Camus considers absurdity as a confrontation, an opposition, a conflict or a divorce between two ideals. Specifically, he defines the human condition as absurd, as the confrontation between man’s desire for significance/meaning/clarity and the silent, cold universe. The character Sisyphus is the prototype of an absurd hero condemned by the gods forever to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it rolled back down again by its own weight. This character represents the epitome of futile labour and pointless existence. Camus therefore argued that humanity had to resign itself to recognizing that a fully satisfying rational explanation of the universe was beyond its reach; in that sense, the world must ultimately be seen as absurd. Such realization or encounter with the absurd leaves the P. 151 www.jecaoauife.com Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 2, No 1&2 Mar/Jun 2019 individual with a choice; suicide. For Camus, suicide is a confession that life is simply not worth living. “It is a choice that implicitly declares that life is too much. Suicide offers the most basic way out of absurdity; the immediate termination of the self and self’s place in the universe” (Camus, 1942, p. 120). Many theatre historians and critics have labeled Alfred Jarry’s French play Ubu Roi as the earliest example of theatre of the absurd. Absurdism also has its origin in Shakespearean drama, particularly through the influence of Commedia dell Arte. The current movement of Absurdism however, emerged in France after World War II, as a rebellion against traditional values and beliefs in western culture and literature. The playwrights loosely grouped under the label of the absurd attempt to convey their sense of bewilderment, anxiety and wonder, in the face of an inexplicable universe. They include Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov and Harold Pinter. In absurdist drama, there is often no real story line, instead, there is a series of free-floating images which influence the way in which an audience interprets a play. There is a focus on the incomprehensibility of the world, or an attempt to rationalize the irrational, disorderly world. Language acts as a barrier to communication, which isolates the individual, thus making speech almost futile. In other words, absurdist drama creates an environment where people are isolated. Clown-like characters stay together simply because they are afraid to be alone in such an incomprehensible world. P. 152 www.jecaoauife.com Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 2, No 1&2 Mar/Jun 2019 Despite this negativity however, absurdism is not completely nihilistic. Martin Esslin explains in his book, The Man and His Work (1959, p. 384): The recognition that there is no simple explanation for all mysteries of the world; that all previous systems have been oversimplified and therefore bound to fail, will appear to be a source of despair only to those who still feel that such a simplified system can provide an answer. The moment we realize that we may have to readjust ourselves to living with less exalted aims and by doing so, become more humble, more receptive, less exposed to violence, disappointments and crisis of consciousness and therefore in the last resort, happier and better adjusted people, simply because we then live in closer record with reality. Therefore, the goal of the absurdist playwright is not to depress audiences with negativity but rather, it is an attempt to bring them closer to reality and help them understand the meaning of their own life. This is why Esslin says further in the book: The human condition, being what it is, with man, small, helpless, insecure and unable to fathom the world in its hopelessness, death and absurdity, the theatre has to confront him with the bitter truth that human endeavour is irrational and senseless, that communication between P. 153 www.jecaoauife.com Journal of English and Communication in Africa Vol. 2, No 1&2 Mar/Jun 2019 human beings is well-nigh impossible and that the world will remain an impenetrable mystery… if we realize the basic absurdity of most of our objectives, we are free from being obsessed with them and thus relief ourselves with laughter (p. 86). Theatre of the absurd was heavily influenced by existential philosophy. Existentialism can be thought of as the 20th century analogue of the 19th century Romanticism. It is typically focused on human lives and the inevitability of suffering and choice for each individual human life. Existentialism is all about freedom and personal choice. It is a philosophy of the here and now concrete human existence. It is anti-idealistic, non-transcendental and anti-metaphysical. As a praxis, it is about facing up to the reality of human condition as it really is with courage, naked honesty and the willing preparedness of following things through to the end. Existentialism puts the individual back at the centre, allowing him to engage his own project while providing him with the possibility to make something of himself and to flourish without suffering alienation by recourse to external transcendent world of values and entities (Olajide, 2017). Deeply rooted in authentic humanism, which is the goal of the philosophy, existentialism asks that we accept essentially as given an indifferent universe that is at its root meaningless to the point of absurdity.